In a speech on the Senate floor in September 1963, McGovern became the first member to challenge the increasing United States military involvement in Vietnam. McGovern said: "The current dilemma in Vietnam is a clear demonstration of the limitations of military power ... [Current U.S. involvement] is a policy of moral debacle and political defeat ... The trap we have fallen into there will haunt us in every corner of this revolutionary world if we do not properly appraise its lessons."